Noah scurried after me, and we escaped the chaos of the crime scene without anyone slowing us down. The cops didn’t need us anymore, so we were as good as invisible now.

Feel’n the love MBPD, feel’n the love. Those cheapskates in the finance department better not forget to pay me. Wait, how long did I take to raise Noah? Hmm, five, ten minutes maybe. . .

Shit! I’ll probably only get paid like a few bucks! Damn it, why didn’t I ever remember that the police department pays by the hour. I totally should have tried to take my time. Maybe I could get them to pay me for the time the bus took to get me to the scene? Yeah, that’s probably not going to work.

“Um, Kari? Where are we going?”

Noah broke my train of thought, but considering how shitty those thoughts were, that wasn’t a bad thing.

“Oh, it’s right up ahead.”

I pointed out a dingy little store just up the street. On the sidewalk in front of the store a water warped sandwich board sign leaned drunkenly with faded letters saying,

“S-LE! Red Tags 25% off! Donations Welcomed”.

The windows of the store were papered over with old ads from about a decade ago that had long since faded to the point that they were unreadable. The automatic doors had been broken ever since I could remember, and the owners were using a 2x4 wooden plank wedged into the doorway to keep the doors open during working hours. The smell wafting out from the door was a combination of old cigarette smoke, cat pee, and dust. This was Harbor Thrift Shop, one of my go to places for clothes shopping. The stuff might not be in the best condition, but they were damn cheap.

We shuffled into the store, Noah in ragged jeans, a stained T shirt, wrapped in that ugly gray blanket, and wearing nothing but dirty socks on his feet, and me looking like, well, me. Yeah, we totally looked like a bunch of hobos.

Wait, Noah only had socks on?! When did that happen? Has he been walking around all this time with no shoes? How did I not notice that? The socks were filthy, still stained rust red from the crime scene, and slopping around with each soggy step.

Yeah, we needed to fix that.

Noah was whipping his head around with his shocked bunny eyes again.

“Oh, is this a vintage clothes store?”

Vintage clothes? What was he, some kind of richy rich kid?

“I’ve never shopped in one of these, but I hear vintage clothes are really trendy.”

Yup, he’s a richy rich kid. Damn, has he just gotten a lifestyle down grade.

“Um, well, yeah, hopefully we can find something you like.”

I wandered over to the T shirt aisle and started looking for something in his size.

Oh, this one looks good, and it’s totally looks like it would fit me. Wait, I was supposed to be looking for Noah clothes. I was just about to put it back on the rack, when I stopped and slowly held it up in the direction of Noah.

“Uh, Noah, come here for a sec.”

Noah left his spot, shuffling through clothes farther down on the rack, and walked over to me. His shoulders were a little wider than mine, but I always wore my clothes a little baggy. Yup, we wore the same size clothes.

“Hey Noah, how old are you?”

“What? We’ve known each other since we were kids and you forgot how old I am?”

Noah was smiling and laughing a little, but he looked a little disappointed as he scratched his head.

Oh, so he thought we were childhood friends? Okay.

It would be easy to just explain to Noah that we didn’t actually know each other, and that we had met just a few minutes ago. But I already knew from experience that those kinds of conversations never go well. The zombies I raised might not be able to point to any clear memories of me, or describe exactly how we first met, but in their minds they are positive that we know each other, and me trying to point out otherwise just seems to confuse and hurt them. So I’ve learned to just play along. It’s better than having them burst into tears. And in the end, they never seem to believe me anyway.

“Sorry, we haven’t seen each other in a little while, and I just forgot.”

This lie always seems to work with newly risen zombies.

“Pft, how could you forget that I’m twenty-two?”

Noah gave me a little hip bump, and I nearly fell over I was so shocked.

“Wait, you’re twenty-two? You are? Right now?”

“Hmm, yup.”

Noah was busy inspecting the shirt I had been holding up to him for sizing just a moment ago.

“You’re two years older than me?”

“Yup.”

Noah didn’t bother looking up from the shirt.

I couldn’t stop myself from staring at him in disbelief.

“Why are you so tiny?!”

I could have said that better, but seriously, it’s kinda hard to miss.

Noah gasped like he was totally slandered.

“I’m not tiny!”

He stuck out his lower lip, and looked very pouty. Like a sad little elf.

I jabbed my finger at him, poking with each point.

“I’m five foot two, and you’re the same height as me, so you are tiny!”

Noah puffed up his tiny cheeks and scowled at me.

“I-I’m not five foot two, I’m five foot three.”

Bull crap, he was. His hair might be a little fluffier than mine, but he was definitely my same size.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Oops, my mistake, I’m actually five foot four.”

He scowled at me.

“Then I’m five-five.”

Oh, so he was going to be like that, huh?

Judging by the stubborn set to his jaw, that’s exactly how he was going to be.

Pft, whatever.

We ended up finding some cheap jogging pants, spa sandals, a hoodie, and a T shirt that had a row of cute little smiling stick figure vampires tucked into their coffins, with the words “All my friends are dead” on it. I thought it was a fitting shirt for someone’s first day as a zombie. Weirdly enough, Noah liked it too.

“Okay, looks like we have everything you need.”

I was shuffling around the arm load of clothes we picked out, and strolling towards the check out line.

“Um, not everything.”

Noah was tugging at the waist band of his torn jeans, and looked kind of embarrassed.

What? What’s the problem?

“What do you mean?”

He leaned in and whispered in my ear.

“I kind of need underwear.”

Huh?

“Can’t you just keep wearing what you have on now?”

His cheeks got even more red and he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t think I’m wearing any.”

Oooookaaay.

He whipped his head around to spot any sign of his missing clothes.

“Do you think they have some here?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Do you seriously want to wear used underwear?”

Noah winced.

“Good point.”

His shoulders drooped a little bit.

I guess he wasn’t looking forward to going commando.

“Don’t worry about it, we can stop by someplace else before you get changed.”

I stepped in line and tried to think of where we could go next that would have undies.

“Someplace before I get changed? I thought I would just get dressed in the changing rooms here.”

Noah looked a little confused as he unloaded some of the clothes in my arms onto the check out counter.

“One, there’s no changing rooms here. Two, maybe you haven’t looked in the mirror for a while, but you’re pretty grubby right now. I think you need to get cleaned up before you get into your new clothes.”

Noah inspected his filthy, water stained arms.

“Oh, yeah, I guess I could use a shower or something.”

A shower or something was our next stop.

As we shuffled down the sidewalk, blending in seamlessly with the panhandlers, Noah was looking over our receipt.

“Kari, I think that lady at the register made a mistake.”

Well, I made sure she didn’t over charge us, and that’s all I cared about.

“All these clothes should have been at least ten times more than what she charged.”

Ten times? What kind of stores has this richy rich boy been shopping at?

“Don’t worry about it.”

I grabbed Noah’s arm and steered him around a sharp corner and into a convenience store.

The scent of strong spices wafting from the little grill at the front counter burned my eyes a little, and the high pitched voices of Bollywood music bubbled through the air.

I’d been to this place a couple times, it had a little bit of everything. The only problem was that everything was jumbled up on the shelves. The canned milk was right next to the porn magazines. The jerky sticks were with the light bulbs. It was kind of a mess in here. The best bet was to just ask the guy at the counter.

I had to yell over the blasting music to even hear myself.

“Hey! Hey! Where’s the underwear?”

The chubby bearded guy in a turban behind the counter pointed in the direction.

“Ah, pantyhose are aisle two.”

I tried yelling louder.

“No not pantyhose, underwear. Underwear!”

The turban guy pointed again.

“Pantyhose, aisle two.”

I shook my head.

“No, dude panties. Dude panties!”

I pointed at Noah, so maybe he’d understand that they weren’t for me. For some reason Noah had turned bright red, and was covering his face with his hands.

The turban guy nodded.

“Ah, briefs aisle four.”

Noah scurried to the right aisle before I could even turn around. By the time I was to the aisle, he had already picked them out and was heading back to the register.

I called to him as Noah blitzed by.

“Are you sure you got the right size?”

He called back over his shoulder, not waiting for me.

“Yup!”

Noah had the turban guy scan the package and had it tucked into our bag of clothes before I could even pull my wallet out. His ears were still pretty red.

The underwear ended up costing more than all the other clothes combined.

Damn it. Totally got ripped off.

Noah was shivering again.

“Where to next?”

Yeah, we need to hightail it to someplace warm.

“Next you need a bath.”

Noah hugged his bag of clothes tighter.

“So home?”

I gave a single shake of my head.

“So, bathhouse.”

There’s no way I could present Noah to anyone in the condition he was in, he needed a serious scrubbing.

The place we were looking for was down a sketchy alley, right next to a teriyaki shop. The tiny front of the building made it look a lot smaller than it actually was. The dark wood of the windowless store front was worn and gray with age and some of the siding was water warped from a broken rain gutter that ran from the roof, down the front of the building, to the street. The front door wasn’t automated, it was more like a sliding glass door that would lead to someone’s back porch, so we had to pull the heavy thing open ourselves.

We walked in the sliding door to be greeted by a wrinkly old lady in a raised booth. There wasn’t a whole lot visible from the front lobby, just an archway that looked like it lead directly into a wall (actually it was a sharp turn to get into a lounge area) and a curtained doorway on either side of the old lady’s perch. One had a dark blue curtain the other had a pink curtain. There was Japanese writing on the curtains that I couldn’t read, but I’m guessing one said ladies and the other said gents. The old lady scowled down at us as we inched closer to her booth.

“One please.”

I held up one finger, just in case she didn’t understand me.

She pointed a bony finger at me.

“You?”

I shook my head and pointed at Noah.

Her frown deepened.

Yeah, Noah looked really grubby. She probably didn’t want to clean up the bath after someone like that.

I tried to give her a reassuring smile.

“Uh, just a shower. Just a shower.”

I turned to Noah.

“You don’t want to soak in the bath, right?”

He looked a little confused, but was nodding anyway.

“Oh, yeah, a shower is fine.”

I turned back to the unhappy old lady, and gave her a smile and a thumbs up.

The old lady scowled some more, but begrudgingly handed over a locker key.

“Okay, enjoy you’re bath time!,” I called to a retreating Noah disappearing beyond one of the curtains, after I had bled out even more money for him.

But this wasn’t my go-to bathhouse because it was especially good or anything, I liked this place because of what they had in the lounge. The lounge that people waiting could use for free!

I waddled my tired self through the archway, and around the corner to the waiting area, and plopped myself into one of the many message chairs that circled the room. And these weren’t just any message chairs, these were the nice Japanese message chairs! It was like heaven for your butt. I pressed a few buttons and the chair started making deep bass humming sounds, and all my stress was starting to be jiggled away.

“Ahhhhhh.”

I turned to my dad to thank him again for recommending this place and . . .

Yeah, no “thanks dad” anymore.

I laid my head back down and stared up at the ceiling.

All this craziness with Noah had distracted me from what my morning had been like. And I was grateful for that distraction, I really was. But now that I was all alone again, and everything was so quiet in the waiting room, all those painful thoughts were creeping back in.

They were gone, really gone. A very long future stretched out in front of me, and my parents wouldn’t be in it anymore. My dad’s gentle voice, my mom’s hot temper, lullabies to sooth me to sleep and pep talks to carry me through the hardest times, all of that was gone. Without the glowing lights of their spirits hovering over me, the world looked a little darker, without their voices always by my side, everything was so quite now.